The entire town thinks Sadie Saunders is dead. Missing now for a week, they say she was murdered. And they think they know who did it.
Aware of the suspicion that surrounds them - and one of them in particular - Sadie's five best friends vow to find out the truth. So they pack their bags and set off for the woods where Sadie was last seen.
But what starts as a search quickly turns into something more sinister. Each of them has a secret, and they all know more about Sadie's past than they are willing to admit. As the landscape opens up, and the darkness closes in, the reality of their situation begins to dawn on them.
It was never really a search party.
It was a witch hunt.
And not everyone is going to make it home.
*
I had never heard of this book or author until my sister happened to tell me one day what she was currently reading. Her answer was The Search Party by Simon Lelic, which she told me I would definitely enjoy. So the obvious decision was to borrow it - naturally.
What really intrigued me was the idea that some of the chapters were written as transcripts of the interviews given by the teenage suspects. I've never seen a book that included that technique before, and I thought it had the potential to really stand out.
I really did enjoy the book. I found it easy to read, intriguing, and the characters were all very well-defined. That being said, the plot wasn't the most original I've seen, and so the book didn't totally stand out to me. However, it was definitely still a great thriller to read.
Rating: ✫✫✫✫
The Story
I think once we've read a certain number of thrillers, they all seem to melt into one. The plots just seem to sound the same, and I can't ever really say that I'll buy a thriller myself unless I've heard amazing things about it. This was one of those where the synopsis didn't really catch my attention. It sounded okay - good even - but it sounded just the same as all the millions of other thrillers out there that would probably be just as good.
As I said earlier, the reason that I picked up this one in particular (and by picked up, I still didn't buy it - just borrowed) was because I was intrigued by the idea that some of the chapters were written as interview transcripts. It seemed like a really interesting detail that I thought had the potential to work really well in this genre. I have to say, I thought it was carried off really well. In most books where there is a mystery to be solved, we pick up a lot of our information from the people leading the case. The narrator, a detective for example, may point out a slight movement or glance from the witness that we immediately understand must be important. That's just the nature of writing. However, all that disappears when we are reading only the dialogue, with absolutely no context about the tone of voice, whether the person sounds angry or anxious, or any other physical giveaways we may ordinarily have. I thought it was a really clever way to use dialogues, and those chapters were my favourites in the whole novel. The author found ways to ensure none of the atmosphere was lost, and I had a lot of fun trying to pick up on what bits of the interviews were relevant, and which might be red herrings.
What added to this was that the characters were varied and easy to follow. There's nothing worse, when you're reading a murder mystery, when there are so many suspects that you have to go back and forth constantly just to keep up; you can't enjoy the story because it's too difficult to keep track of everyone. Thankfully, I didn't have this problem. The characters are very clearly laid out, and we get to know all of them in their own way. It was very well crafted, this story.
I don't think the plot would have held up by itself, if I'm totally honest. I think it was propped up a lot by the fact the characters were easy to follow, and the writing was interesting. The idea of the search party was interesting, but it felt a little tedious at the same time as it took what felt like a disproportionately long time to get the whole truth. It was broken up slightly by the chapters that focused on the detective, but it didn't stand out enough either way. A good plot, but not a great one.
The Verdict
I really enjoyed reading The Search Party. It was a fast-paced read with an interesting story and a range of characters that kept my attention. I especially liked the interview transcripts that made up most of the chapters, as this was a device I'd never seen used before.
However, as much as I did enjoy it, it didn't feel entirely original. It melted a little bit into all the other thrillers and I'm not sure it was good enough to stand out from all the other thrillers I've read over the past couple of years.
Enjoyable, but not outstanding.
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